Sunrise, also known as MacCorkle Mansion, is a historic home located at

Charleston, West Virginia Charleston () is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in West Virginia, most populous city of the U.S. state of West Virginia. It is the county seat of Kanawha County, West Virginia, Kanawha County and ...

. It was built in 1905 by West Virginia's ninth governor,

William A. MacCorkle William Alexander MacCorkle (May 7, 1857 – September 24, 1930), was an American teacher, lawyer, prosecutor, the ninth governor of West Virginia and state legislator of West Virginia, and financier. His residence in Charleston, known as Sunris ...

(1857-1930). It is a long, three-story stone mansion. Its gabled roof is dotted with

dormer A dormer is a roofed structure, often containing a window, that projects vertically beyond the plane of a Roof pitch, pitched roof. A dormer window (also called ''dormer'') is a form of roof window. Dormers are commonly used to increase the ...

s and chimneys and surmounts an intricate, but wide, cornice which gives the illusion that the house is smaller than it actually is. The Georgian structure rests on a bluff overlooking the

Kanawha River The Kanawha River ( ) is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 97 mi (156 km) long, in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The largest inland waterway in West Virginia, its watershed has been a significant industrial region of th ...

, and from the northern portico one can see nearly the entire city of Charleston. The north side features four magnificent Doric, or neo-classic, columns which support the cornice and

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

-finished pediment. In 1961 Sunrise Foundation, Inc., was formed for the purpose of purchasing the mansion and grounds. It was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

in 1974. The mansion was the former home of the Sunrise Museum, a science and art museum that became the Avampato Discovery Museum when it moved into the Clay Center for the Arts and Sciences - West Virginia when it opened in 2003.http://www.whycharlestonwv.com/headline/sunrise-carriage-trail/ Sunrise Carriage Trail, Dec. 12, 2008 Currently the house is privately owned and is not open to the public.

Gallery

Image:Sunrise Street Apr 09.JPG, Sunrise (Street View), April 2009

References

External links

* * Houses in Charleston, West Virginia Houses completed in 1905 Houses on the National Register of Historic Places in West Virginia National Register of Historic Places in Charleston, West Virginia Stone houses in West Virginia 1905 establishments in West Virginia Historic American Buildings Survey in West Virginia Neoclassical architecture in West Virginia Georgian Revival architecture in West Virginia Greek Revival architecture in West Virginia {{KanawhaCountyWV-NRHP-stub